Lawrence of Arabia

Those eyes! That score! All that sand! Reissues don’t come much more stunning than this, an immaculately rendered 8K scan/4K intermediate digital restoration of one of the most beautiful and stirring epics of all time. Hauling in seven Academy Awards on its release in 1962, the current release weighs in at 227 minutes, with an overture, intermission, entr'acte and exit music.

Peter O’Toole plays T.E. Lawrence, whose desert exploits of heroism and guerrilla warfare unfurl in flashbacks, presenting a complex picture of a man living by his own rules. Joining with Arab forces in their fight against Turkish armies, Lawrence shows tenacity, invention and a courageous level of leadership, but egotism and the thrill of battle prove to be highly combustible qualities.

It is an often-used phrase to suggest that a film needs to be seen on the Big Screen. For Lawrence of Arabia, a film that many audiences will have previously encountered on television – or recently as android David’s muse in Prometheus – this opportunity to experience the film projected large is truly magnificent event cinema.